The Unlikely Missionary

I love our public library. My son Mack and I have been hitting the Schlow pretty hard lately. The kids programs are terrific and the new books section is awesome. The building is brand new and has lots of cozy seats. Mack and I sat on a couch next to a life-size Clifford and watched leaves blow down the street, until we eyeballed the Panera’s across the street…

I checked out: “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” by David Sedaris; “To Hell with All That” by Caitlin Flanagan; “Floor Sample” by Julia Cameron (who wrote the Artist’s Way); and “Chameleon Days” by Tim Bascom from the new non-fiction section.

With 1 million books published every year why should one keep writing? Isn’t there enough out there? But, I figure with 300 million people in the country we have more people to read, more life to live, more to write!

Others who have gone before us encourage us not to be afraid of the abundance of creative energy and good writers, that some contribute small streams while others are the mighty rivers but all are needed to make the oceans. All of us have something to give. I think this was Chekhov’s image although I couldn’t find that specific quote, but I found some other quotes of his on writing:

Flies purify the air, and plays — the morals.

ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to A.P. Chekhov, April 11, 1889

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

ANTON CHEKHOV, The Seagull

Try to be original in your play and as clever as possible; but don’t be afraid to show yourself foolish; we must have freedom of thinking, and only he is an imancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to A.P. Chekhov, April 11, 1889

One usually dislikes a play while writing it, but afterward it grows on one. Let others judge and make decisions.

ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to Maxim Gorky, September 24, 1900

It’s curious that we can’t possibly tell what exactly will be considered great and important, and what will seem paltry and ridiculous. Did not the discoveries of Copernicus or Columbus, let us say, seem useless and ridiculous at first, while the nonsensical writings of some wiseacre seemed true?

ANTON CHEKHOV, The Three Sisters

When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights; but if one looks into the soul — it’s nothing but a common crocodile.

ANTON CHEKHOV, The Boor

Brevity is the sister of talent.

ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to A.P. Chekhov, April 11, 1889

Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.

ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to A.S. Suvorin, Dec. 27, 1889

We need new forms of expression. We need new forms, and if we can’t have them we had better have nothing.

ANTON CHEKHOV, The Seagull

Write only of what is important and eternal.

ANTON CHEKHOV, The Sea